Swimming Through Jello

Sectionals Recap

Wooo! Long weekend. Had a blast and a good meet at Region VIII Sectional Championships at Mizzou. My first time swimming at Mizzou in 9 years, love that pool. Now an even bigger percentage of my best times were done in it. Official results aren't up yet, I update with places and exact time corrections when they are.

Thursday - Relay Day

Already recapped this earlier but what the heck. Warmups were super crowded so the whole team got in the same lane and we pretty much ended up doing a bunch of 50s and 25s.

100 Fly - 51.95 prelims, 36th place - This was about 20 minutes after the 100 breast prelim, was surprised I did so well with not feeling fully recovered from that. A hundredth off of the Ozark Masters record though, gaaah! Half a second drop from Ozark Senior Champs though.

Saturday - Late Night Day

50 Free - 21.25 prelims, t-22nd place; 21.38 finals, 22rd place - Prelims swim was really good, dropped half a second from Ozark Seniors. Finals swim I had a subpar turn, just didn't get into the second 25 all that well. Still happy with it.

100 Back - 52.33 prelims, t-26th place - Strong swim. I'm definitely not a backstroker anymore (my all time PR is 50.69) but I'm more than happy with that time for Masters. Scratched out of D finals to save for relay at night.

400 Medley Relay - A relay breaststroke, 58.0 split, 12th place - This was a little after 9pm, was hard to get up and go, though I gave it a good effort as I was out 26.9, faster than my individual event. Just lost my pull coming home! I think we were 10th place.

Sunday - Prelims Day

100 Free - 47.65, 37th place - Almost two seconds faster than Ozark Seniors and over a second faster than my PR. Solid swim, though I think I have more in me if I figure out how to swim it right.

50 Breast - 26.77, 8th place prelims - Lost track of time and forgot to warm up but went surprisingly well anyway! Was hard to scratch out of a championship finals but I wanted to get home by this point. Half a second faster than going out the 100 (which was my previous best time). I never, ever, ever thought I'd say I was a 26/57 breaststroker. Like, where did that come from?

400 Free Relay - B relay anchor, 47.3 split, 14th place (top B relay besides the team that swam their best relay as their B) - Was running on fumes by this point, just wanted faster than my flat start, which I got. This was a fun relay! 3 of us went fast than our individual flat starts, including the leadoff!

So our girls' team won the meet, and the combined team won the meet (I think men got 6th?). Was really happy to contribute to that! Got to see some coaches and families from various parts of my swimming career that I hadn't seen in a long time. All in all, I'm really glad I went. If Masters Nats next year looks like it'll be expensive/inconvenient to get to, I'll definitely look at doing this meet again (assuming it's in short course!). Weighed in at 183 pounds this morning, gotta eat some food this week!

Comments

50 Breast - 26.77, 8th place prelims - Lost track of time and forgot to warm up but went surprisingly well anyway! Was hard to scratch out of a championship finals but I wanted to get home by this point.

I saw Josh Davis in the results. (You beat him )
Did you see him there?
Must be nice to be 46 and scoring a second swim at sectionals...

I did see him! He's actually coaching the team that I used to swim for when my family lived in Oklahoma City, plus a college team there. It's funny, he swam in the Olympics before 99% of the people swimming at that meet were even alive. Hardly any of the kids on my team even knew who he was!

I saw Josh Davis in the results. (You beat him )
Did you see him there?
Must be nice to be 46 and scoring a second swim at sectionals...

Actually he didn't get a second swim because our Sectional has an 18&U only policy for the D final lol. Personally, I think the rule is stupid because when you get to a meet on the level of Sectionals and above, it's all open swimming and we shouldn't designate certain ages from being able to participate. Also, at Sprint Sectionals, swimmers over 18 make up such a small percentage of the total number of swimmers (the number is a little larger for Summer Sectionals when all the college kids are back) that it doesn't make much of a difference anyways.

I have been screwed by this rule numerous times. I also dislike how I can never get a straight answer on it. One meet, I was 17th (back when they only took 3 final heats and the C final was 18&U) and I went up to the scratch table to see if I had been scratched into the B final. I had been, only someone had already "auto scratched" me as soon as results posted.

If you earn a second swim, you deserve a second swim, regardless of age. Not everyone wins a trophy.

/rant off
sorry to hijack your blog post about a fantastic meet, Jeff!

'never heard of a Sectional rule about 18&U for the D final. There are a few meets around here with a 14&U D final. I tend to agree with your argument about a sectional level meet. If it's an open meet with a single set of qtims, it seems appropriate that the finals be open as well. For an age-group meet, swimming multiple age groups together for prelims but separately for finals seems like it would be a good way to go.

I did see him! He's actually coaching the team that I used to swim for when my family lived in Oklahoma City, plus a college team there. It's funny, he swam in the Olympics before 99% of the people swimming at that meet were even alive. Hardly any of the kids on my team even knew who he was!